


shall i dance with you to the rhythm of uncertainties?

by seulgogi



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: F/F, i might delete this later if i feel like it needs to be fleshed out to fit pt 2 better, see! i can write not painful things too!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:22:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27393433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seulgogi/pseuds/seulgogi
Summary: vaguely inspired by the tumblr post: "once i met a girl so pretty I lost my ability to differentiate between languages and gave her my coffee order in three different ones mashed together"
Relationships: Park Sooyoung | Joy/Son Seungwan | Wendy
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43





	shall i dance with you to the rhythm of uncertainties?

**Author's Note:**

> did somebody order a little wenjoy? this was written in 13 hours and you can tell! anyways!!! title hijacked from the megumi acorda song "i'll get by"

It was hot. Unusually and unbearably hot. Seungwan was sweating even in the back of the bus directly under the air conditioning. She fanned herself with a pamphlet someone had given her while she was standing a few feet away from the stop under the protection of a shady tree and apparently close enough to invite the unwanted company of persistent evangelicals. When she had gotten to her stop, a group of about four women had been pulling people aside and speaking to them in hushed voices but whatever God they were pushing onto people had to belong to an odd religion because the strangers they managed to stop all walked away in some kind of daze. And Seungwan wanted none of that. She most definitely _wouldn’t_ be trying to figure out if their Jesus was the man she needed in her life but she would thank him all the same for the spare moment of reprieve the thin little papers gave her. 

She didn’t need to be out long. She only had one errand that day, one that she simply couldn’t put off any longer lest she would risk running out of those tea cookies Seulgi really liked. She didn’t mean to absentmindedly eat so many of them while Seulgi had been busy at work training their new employee but the past is the past. And it wouldn’t even matter if Seulgi never found out. Especially if she stopped by her roommate’s place of work with a lunchbox, made with love and a little bit of subliminal groveling, on her way to the store to replenish them. 

She pushed the red oblong button on one of the floor-to-roof poles and hopped off the idling bus with a “thank you!” and a huff. The engine heat mixed in with the dry heat of the summer seared into her skin as she got a hold of her bearings. Seungwan wouldn’t call herself ditzy nor would anyone else that knew her well. But she had her moments where the gears in her mind worked a little harder to separate the necessary and efficient thoughts from the swarm of irrelevant ones then go about putting those thoughts in proper order. She looked around for familiar buildings and cross streets to satiate the little voice in her head that swore up and down she had gotten off on the wrong stop and was actually one million blocks away from where she needed to be. With the reassurance that, yes, she was in fact capable of completing the menial task of taking the bus alone, she walked the rest of the way to the cafe and bakery Seulgi called her place of employment. 

The bells rattled against the door's metal frame above her as she walked in. It was pleasantly busy for a weekday afternoon, nothing the professional bakers-in-training couldn’t handle. She was once again doused in the cool coating of central air and welcomed by coffee creamer and blueberry cheesecake infiltrating her sense of smell. 

Seulgi, who managed to always have flour smudged across her forehead, nodded politely to a customer after taking their order and jumped at the sudden call of her name. 

“Seungwan! Hey! What are you doing here? I thought you were gonna spend the day “cleaning”? 

If Seungwan hadn’t known that Seulgi understood cleaning to mean sitting at the coffee table rearranging the magazines and watching movies instead of actually getting anything done, she would’ve blanched at the threat of being caught. But she was secure that Seulgi had no clue her favorite snack had been stolen right from under her nose. 

“I was,” she affirmed with an over-enthusiastic glint in her eye. “But I saw that little laundry detergent bear commercial and thought of you-“ one of Seulgi’s coworkers snorted “so I brought you lunch. You haven’t already gone have you?”

Seulgi shook her head, sticking out her grabby hands in anticipation of the gift Seungwan was pulling out of her canvas “punk’s not dead” tote bag. She slid the plastic container over, Seulgi clapping her thanks out in slow beats. Seungwan’s culinary mind control diversion had worked. While Seulgi would be munching on the pasta dish she had prepared for her, thinking only of all the good her roommate puts back into the universe, Seungwan would be putting the final touches on the perfect heist. 

Seulgi reluctantly put her meal to the side, giving it a longing glance before turning back to Seungwan with a smile that rivaled the shine of the sun on a hot tin roof. “You want anything while you’re here? It’s on me.” She could say that all she wanted, but the second she turned around Seungwan would most definitely slip a $10 into the tip jar which was just a repurposed M&M’s container. 

Seungwan chewed the inside of her cheek as she squinted at the menu. As good as warm pastries and tea sounded, she couldn’t linger and hot tea doesn’t fare the human body well in sweltering heat.“Just a honeycomb lavender latte is fine.” 

It was one of the few drinks that reminded her of home. She had never really ordered it often back then. But, after moving from Canada and years later finding a cafe that had the drink on the menu, she had clung to the liquid nostalgia. It was also how she and Seulgi became friends because apparently, no one else had ever ordered that specific drink in the time that Seulgi had been working there and Seungwan had been the saving grace for the drink being discontinued altogether. And when prepared by the hands of either the closest thing she had to a soulmate or one of Seulgi’s coworkers that she had come to build fond rapport with, it filled Seungwan’s chest with the warmth of being loved and known. 

She waited off to the side, admiring the handiwork of restocking the display with fresh danishes and daily specials. An instinctual half-smile grew on her face watching the flow of teamwork and familiarity behind the counter. The way they all moved like one body, in fluid cohesion with one another. It made her wonder how well the newcomer had fit in. 

“Here you go.” The cold press of the plastic cup broke up her thoughts. “And this too. For your bus ride.” Seulgi held up a small paper bag, the silhouettes of three large cookies put stars in Seungwan’s eyes. She had an inkling it was the ones with the raspberry center she liked so much, her roommate’s thoughtfulness knew no bounds. To her misfortune. She put a little more urgency in her exit to replace Seulgi’s that she had accidentally eaten on purpose. 

She gave her goodbyes and power walked a block over, sipping on her coffee, to the grocery store. When she placed the new package where the old one had been in their pantry, later that night, she considered the switcheroo a success as Seulgi merely paused with a head tilt and ripped it open for them to share. 

☾☾☾

The Mandela effect, Seungwan believed, was a completely bogus case proving the feeble nature of memory in the human brain. Sure it was fun to go back and see all the things she thought she knew to be true but had somehow got muddled and misconstrued in her brain with age but that was it. An absolute fallacy. Now deja vu? _That_ was a sensation she could get behind! 

More times than she could count, she found herself rendered dizzy with waves of deja vu smacking against her psyche. She was sitting on the couch catching up on a show that she had initially immersed herself into because the actress playing the lead was drop-dead gorgeous. The sun had gone down, a sign that Seulgi would be home soon so when the credits of the episode rolled, she got up to put the snacks she had been borrowing back into the pantry only to find crumbs and air settled within the bag. 

She gasped in shock, looking around as if the face of the culprit would jump out of hiding instead of reflecting back at her as she looked forlornly at the empty contents. Of course, because deja vu was such a visceral experience of malleable temporality, the lock in the door turned indicating Seulgi’s arrival. She spun around in circles as she scrambled to hide the evidence. 

“Wan-ah! I picked up some takeout on the way home-“ 

Seulgi was cut off by loud crumbling and a squeak. “Oh, you’re in here. Sorry for yelling. I got food.” She wiggled the plastic bag in the air and walked further into the kitchenette to set it down. Seungwan side-stepped out of her way, her hands securely placed behind her back. 

“You didn’t have to! It was my turn tonight.” 

Seulgi shrugged, lazily pushing her floppy bangs out of her view as she unpacked the takeout from the burger hut she stopped by on her trip back home from work. “Meh. I knew what I was in the mood for- here, your Asada fries- and didn’t feel like waiting until I got _all_ the way here to get it.” 

Distracted by her own hunger, Seungwan moved her arm to take the offered food but was reminded of her predicament by the not-at-all discreet crinkling of the chip bag that was stuffed into the back of her pants. “Well, I got it next time, thank you,” she rushed out trying to drown the noise. “I will go wash my hands but then I will rejoin you and we can watch whatever shitty cooking show you wanna put on. Immediately. For as long as you want. We’ll be glued to the couch until the morning.” Seungwan dashed off, keeping her back turned away from Seulgi all the way until she got to the bathroom. She used the sound of the running water to cover up her panic in finding a proper hiding spot. She would need to keep Seulgi distracted and her mind away from snacks. Maybe she could share her food. 

“Seungwan! You know we have a sink in the kitchen, right?”

☾☾☾

Grapes or strawberries. Grapes or strawberries…

Seungwan tapped her finger on her chin. She preferred the latter but Seulgi doesn’t really like them so she would be left to eat the whole thing herself and with the way strawberries turn bad the second she takes her eye off them, that would be impossible. Grapes, on the other hand, last a lot longer and they both like them. But they’re such a boring fruit…

Time moves differently in a grocery store. There’s an Interstellar-like quality to it where everything is warped and convoluted so she can never really tell how long she spends looking at all the different cereal brands and napkin companies. Especially at night when really the only people in the store are 9-5er’s and graveyard shift dwellers. It was less hectic and she could get lost in all the assorted soup can displays and chat with all the stock girls and tired moms as she pleased. Obviously, she could just look at her watch or even her phone to keep track of the time but that would take away from the experience. 

She was simply waiting for Seulgi to text her to say that they’ve closed up for the day so she could snap back into reality and make her way over to spend time with the night shift workers as they prepared for the next day. It had been a while since they last had a chance to engage in its therapeutic appeal because they had taken to training their new girl at night for the behind the scenes work. Sometimes they would try out new takes on recipes and use Seungwan as their guinea pig or they would just sit around finishing off the day’s leftovers. 

She moved up in the line as it shortened and shortened, smiling to herself as she recalled Seulgi telling her that night she almost got caught red-handed in hiding her snack-thievery evidence about how the new girl still struggled with their espresso machine. 

“Foam everywhere,” she had said. “It was cute until I realized that I would have to clean it up.”

“Well, is she taking to everything else okay?” 

Seulgi smugly nodded her head. “Of course! Seeing as I was in charge of training her-“

“Only because Yerim turned it down.”

“Details, details,” Seulgi dismissed. “She’s got the whole basic menu down already. And anybody with fourth-grade math skills can run the register. This girl is like a math god, though. We could probably use her instead and turn a profit. She came at such a good time, too. Completely by chance, but perfect timing because we needed the extra help.” 

“Sounds like she could probably run the place better than-“

Seulgi smacked a Cheeto-stained hand over Seungwan’s mouth, not caring about the fake gagging she was doing behind it. “Don’t even joke about that. Joohyun has ears everywhere.”

Just as she stepped back out into the humid night, Seulgi rang her telling her that if she wanted any of the cream puffs before Yerim devoured them all, she better hurry. With great devotion did she skip over to the bakery. It was more of a peppy power walk, her bag wasn’t the lightest and she didn’t want the cherries (neither strawberries nor grapes would do) to crush any of the replacement Seulgi snacks because the whole trip to the store would have been a waste of time. 

She strolls up catching the jingling of the bells and the departure of a tall figure leaving the bakery. She utters a small “excuse me” and pays them no mind. 

“I thought you guys closed up for the night?” 

“We did!” Seulgi clangs a bunch of baking sheets onto the counter. 

“Then who was that?” She looks back out into the empty street on the other side of the glass door. Curious. 

Joohyun and Yerim came waddling out of the kitchen, both struggling to carry the home mixer to set it down on the countertop. “You just missed Sooyoung,” Joohyun strained out. She anticipated Seungwan’s follow up question. “The new girl.” 

Seulgi manifests at her side with a cream puff, pushing her in the direction of her designated stool in front of the counter and locks the front door. Seungwan felt the urge to run out into the night to find her and properly greet her, maybe even walk her home to ensure she gets there safe. 

“She’s fine. She parked in the alley out back.” Seungwan put her bag down and hesitantly took her seat, a wary eye still kept on the door watching for any suspicious characters walking in the direction she saw Sooyoung leave. “Go watch her on the security cameras if you’re that concerned.” Yerim’s distracted reassurances did little to ease her worry. She dropped her feet back onto the floor genuinely considering monitoring the CCTV but Seulgi got in her way once again. “Sit. Eat your cream puff. Our test subject can’t be stressed, it'll taint the results and screw up the data. Here, hold onto this for me.” Seulgi handed over her cell phone then joined the pair behind the counter. Three bakers and not a single one could manage the new mixer. It’s about 20 minutes into Seungwan reading off instructions and setting descriptions when Seulgi’s phone vibrates in her pocket. 

**Park Sooyoung:** as promised, a text informing you that I am alive. and this isn’t a fraudulent text from some kind of axe murderer 

A moment later, the phone vibrated again with the message “see!” and a picture of presumably Sooyoung’s not dead hand holding up her keys in front of an apartment door. 

She looked up to tell Seulgi about the text and jumped when she saw that she was already standing in front of her. “We’re gonna get started on the cake if you’re focused and ready to go.” Her smile was innocent enough but Seungwan knew she was holding back at least a chuckle or two at her expense. 

☾☾☾

Today was just not her day. She had walked into about a million corners in their humble apartment and her legs were all bruised and sore; she tried to do something nice for Seulgi and make breakfast for them that morning but ended up spacing out and setting off the smoke alarm. And now, when all she wanted to do after a long day (it was only 6 pm) of rude clients and coworkers knocking into her sensitive legs and dropping things all day, she realized that she had somehow managed to leave her keys at work and Seulgi wasn’t due home for a few hours. If one person could make her already shitty day worse, it would be herself because no one knew how to work her nerves like her own subconscious. She slid down the wall opposite her door all but whining until Seulgi picked up the phone. 

The sound of conversation and cash exchange greeted her before Seulgi did. “And here’s your change. Thank you, come again!” She heard shuffling and lowly delivered instructions from the other end of the phone, the commotion quite soothing to her rising frustration, and a brief moment of silence before Seulgi’s echoing voice finally acknowledged her. “Seungwan-ah, is everything okay? You’re calling instead of texting.” 

She rested her cheek on her folded knees, she could honestly just sit there and be pitiful until Seulgi came home. “No... I left my keys at work…” Silence. “Seulgi?” No response, other than the grainy sound of cell phone feedback. “Seul?” The abrupt commotion of paper towels being yanked out of a dispenser interrupted the static quiet. 

“Sorry. I had to pee. You left your keys at work?” Seulgi adopted the same miserable tone Seungwan had been using, mostly to humor her but also to reflect how ridiculous she sounded. Seulgi was a master at making her feel comforted while simultaneously getting a kick out of making her look like a fool even in her wallowing. She did have a tendency to overreact but it is always rightfully earned! 

Seungwan pointlessly nodded. “Yes. Now I’m locked out. By myself. And I’m hungry.” She sighed feeling the weight of the unnecessarily difficult day fall onto her chest. “And today has just been the worst so now I’m sad.”

Seulgi tsked and closed a door behind her, reintroducing the sounds of orders being placed and display trays being moved around. “Oh no. Our poor Seungwan-ah. We can’t have that, can we? Well, you can come get my keys and I’ll give you a slice of coffee cake. How ‘bout that? And when I get off, I’ll run straight home and you can tell me all about your bad day. Or not. Whatever you want.” 

Seungwan had already gotten up and bolted for the staircase at the mention of coffee cake. Seulgi laughed over the sounds of Seungwan’s thunderous descent to the lobby. “Okay, I’ll see you in a bit.” 

By the time Seungwan got to the bakery, there were only a handful of people scattered about at different tables. In her frequency of visits to the bakery this late in the afternoon, she’s noticed that at some point, people start coming for coffee-to-go and anyone sitting down at a table has probably been there for quite some time and would eventually be on their way out. 

Seulgi was busy making together to-go orders and phone orders but waved at her when she walked in nonetheless. Her pity cake would be on its way and her hands very soon but she thought to herself, why not add a little extra treat onto the treat. The sweet gesture was thoughtful on Seulgi’s end but why shouldn’t she give herself a break, too? 

She joined the few people in line resisting the urge to lean against the P90X guy built like a mattress in front of her. A nap would be so good right now, she thought. When you wake up hot and itchy because the sun refuses to rest even when it’s not in the sky then a thousand minuscule things go wrong, one right after the other, days can feel so heavy. But soon, so very soon, Seulgi will give her the keys and she’ll have warm streusel and cinnamon filling falling apart and melting in her mouth all washed down with that little bit of home in a plastic cup. The coffee nap to follow would be just what she needed to make it through the rest of the evening. Waking up to the espresso already settled in her bloodstream, fully rejuvenated in the comfort of her bed. What could be better than- 

“Uh, hey. That’s you. You’re next in line.” 

Seungwan looked at the hand tapping her shoulder and blinked. “I’m sorry?” 

“They’ve said next like four times now, it’s your turn.” 

She finally realized that the line in front of her had dispersed and she was holding everyone up. She rubbed her eyes and looked for Seulgi who was no longer in her line of sight. She must’ve accidentally dozed off for a second. Blinking she fixed her eyes on the menu out of habit, her eyes still a bit out of focus. It was unfortunate that her mind was already fuzzy because when she turned to address the person behind the register, her cognitive thinking shut off completely. For someone who solely consumed media based on the attractiveness of the lead roles, she had never come across a woman as pretty as the one that stood before her, a hand hovering over the electronic register. A concerning crackled low groan escaped her mouth and she hoped no one had heard it. The girl’s mouth moved but the cotton in Seungwan’s ears didn’t allow for the words to come through. 

“I’m sorry?” 

“I said, ‘welcome. What can I get for you?’”

“Oh. Uh hi, sorry, can I get the, uh, honey lavender latte, please?” 

Her mouth twitched in a questioning smile. “And what size would you like for that?” 

Can voices be pretty? This must be Sooyoung. Wow, she had a pretty voice. A little hypnotizing. Not at all what Seungwan had imagined. “Medium, please.” 

Seungwan paid and thanked her. She took her place at the pickup counter watching as Yerim swapped places with who could only be Sooyoung because hers was the only face Seungwan was not familiar with, and she knows that for a fact because it would impossible to forget the way her brain felt like pins and needles just from looking at her. She leaned on the counter and rested against the palm of her hand. She would have felt embarrassed at her stupor had it not been for the exhaustion and overall numbness to any further frustration with herself that day. 

“Hey, here’s your latte.” She half expected Seulgi to magically appear and be the one to give her the drink along with her promised cake and keys. But, no. It was still Sooyoung. Seungwan looked at her drink with a sigh. “Geez, try it first before being disappointed.” 

Despite those words typically being used in a manner of the deliverer feeling disrespected, Sooyoung looked at her in amusement and commiseration. Seungwan rubbed away the growing pain in her temples. “Excuse my rudeness. It’s not you.” Both of their hands were still on the cup. “It’s just been… a long day. And I want to go home.” 

“So go home?” 

Seungwan shook her head. “I can’t, not yet anyway. It’s a whole thing but I’m waiting on my friend, Seulgi, you work with her, to give me her keys to our apartment.” 

Recognition brightened up Sooyoung’s features and she turned this way and that at the mention of Seulgi. Really, where had she disappeared to? “Yeah, I don’t know where she is, right now. She was just here...Yerim?” She received a grunt in reply. “Where’s Seulgi?” “I don’t know. She and Joohyun left a while ago. Oh. I was supposed to tell you that. Hey, Sooyoung. Joohyun and Seulgi left a while ago to make a run somewhere. Boss, said to man the fort until they get back. Consider it overtime. Oh, and take your break.” 

Seungwan deflated at the news. She would be without the comfort of her bed and her beloved coffee nap for an indeterminate amount of time. She could always just take a bus back to her job and hope someone was still lingering around or else she’d have to break in and that wouldn’t look good on her CV if she got fired. 

“Well,” Sooyong untied her apron and sat it on top of the counter. “Yerim should be able to handle things for a bit, why don’t you let me wait for Seulgi with you at least for the 30 minutes I’m free. You can tell me about the “whole thing” that was your day.” 

She really had no other option. And it would be better to be entertained by someone that seemed to have genuine interest and concern for her woes rather than sulk in a corner staring out the window like a lonely puppy waiting for their owner to return home. “Okay, but Seulgi promised me cake.” 

“That’s fine. It’ll come out of her check, not mine. Words are legally binding here.” 

☾☾☾

“So basically this guy comes in. He’s looking for a package- our department handles mail for a few other departments for whatever reason- and he’s like it was supposed to come two days ago. But it was after 1 so our mail guy was already out delivering. So I ask what department he’s from and he gives me the name of a department that literally does not exist.” Sooyoung laughs, clapping her hands and it gets Seungwan more involved in the retelling of her story. “So I check anyway, to appease him. And I’m like there’s nothing there under that department or your name.” 

“Oh no.”

“Exactly. But it gets worse. Not only is he late picking it up, but he _also_ admits he doesn’t actually _know_ which department he works under, which is nucking futs. So I’m checking backlogs of shipping numbers and company names and I’m coming up with nothing, our mail guy is still gone.” She stops to take another forkful of coffee cake. “This goes on for a few hours but eventually it turns out that it wasn’t even sent to us and someone else had already picked it up, wherever it was sent, and signed for it.” 

Sooyoung groaned in sympathy. Recalling the main source of her unsettling irritation had Seungwan’s heart racing and her frustration flurrying. She only had so much patience for incompetent people. “Right. And, like, he had me scared that _I_ was gonna get in trouble for losing his boss’s package.” 

Once Sooyoung got her going, she could not find it in herself to stop. She was supposed to save all her ranting for Seulgi later but it was bothering her more than she thought and it seemed she desperately needed to get it all out or she’d implode. She felt a little too self-indulgent for taking up Sooyoung’s time and emotionally dumping all over someone she’s only just formally met. If they had met under better different circumstances, though, she doesn’t know how interesting Sooyoung would have found her. Or if she’d given her as much of her time.

“That’s so crazy...and that just put a bummer on your whole day?” 

“Not exactly. I mean, it takes a whole chunk of responsibility but it was little things too, you know. Like, look.” Seungwan moved around the other side of the table to the chair next to Sooyoung and brought her leg up onto the seat, showing off all the small but plentiful bruises that had already darkened since the morning. “I am disgustingly clumsy, but more so today than ever. This morning, because I am sightless without my contacts, I kept bumping into shit at home. After that guy left, I didn’t really want to deal with people again so I decided to clean the back with all the shelves and the industrial shredder-”

“Which sounds dumb considering you’re no taller than my youngest sibling.” 

Seungwan shrunk a bit at the disapproval. “Right...so things kept falling, and boxes kept popping up out of nowhere, and even when I got help, I only got clumsier.” 

Sooyoung sucked her teeth, ghosting a single finger over some of the bruises on her calf. Such gentleness preserved as if too much force would unveil the secret of humanity’s fragile nature. It was too scrutinizing, Seungwan felt exposed. “Enough about me,” she laughed nervously. “How was _your_ day?” 

Sooyoung kept her hand close as if she had been waiting to make contact the entire time but hadn’t had an excuse to initiate. “Uneventful until you came in. I basically woke up and laid in bed until it was time for me to leave.” 

Seungwan scrunched up her nose. “Yeah, but I was yammering instead of letting you rest.” 

“It’s fine. It’s like in high school when you walk someone to their bus stop and wait with them simply because you’re not ready to leave them just yet.” 

“Besides,” Sooyoung continued. “It was fun to listen to you place your order in this interesting mix of Korean and English. I might’ve heard some French, too, but I can’t be sure.”

Seungwan squinted in confusion. “What are you talking about?” If she were being honest, she doesn’t remember much in between realizing she had left her keys at work and finding out she would have to wait around for however long until Seulgi came back. 

Sooyoung giggled as she explained. “When you came in earlier after that guy had to wake you up, you stood in front of me slightly incoherent and randomly switched between English and Korean as you spoke and acted like it was normal. I could sorta tell you were having a _day_.” 

Seungwan repeatedly knocked her forehead against the tabletop mumbling about how she was an embarrassment to both her family name and everyone she has ever associated with. Sooyoung slid her hand in to act as a buffer. “You’re not. I actually thought it was kind of cute. In an ‘oh my god, this girl needs a nap _bad_ ’ kind of way.” 

Seungwan froze. She peeked an eye open and looked up at Sooyoung. “You thought it was cute?” She’s a grown woman, she is not cute.

“I did. I think _you_ are cute.” Okay well then maybe she is. 

She opened her other eye, though much of her visibility was blocked by her own cheek that was pressed against Sooyoung’s hand. She searched her face for the appropriate response, she didn’t want to make the wrong move and impose or project. 

“All you know about me is that I drop things and I’m small.”

Sooyoung shook her head like she was wise beyond her years. Like she was an ancient sage reincarnated as a woman with exceptional fashion taste and she was about to give Seungwan the elixir of life. “Not true. You learn a lot about someone in the way others love them. And every shift that I’ve spent with Seulgi and in the time she’s spent training me, almost every conversation works its way back to you. I learned so much about you, all that was missing was a face to pair with the name. It’s a nice one, by the way, both the name and the face.” 

Her words had this runic effect on Seungwan, almost hypnotizingly so. Like she had heard her specific prayer and came to her with just what she needed to hear to make affection bloom from her head down to her toes. The buzzing in her ear grew the longer she stared into Sooyoung’s eyes. 

“Seungwan!” 

She jumped away and knocked her knee against the table in the process. Seulgi ran up and cradled Seungwan’s head in her arms. “I am so sorry for leaving you like that, there was an emergency with one of the ovens and we had to get that sorted out before the place closed for the weekend.” 

Seungwan rubbed her reddening knee, Sooyoung offering a comforting pat. “No worries. I had company.” 

Seulgi’s worried expression contorted into one of confusion then suspicion, her eyes bouncing from Seungwan’s content smile to Sooyoung’s gaze, down to her coworker’s hand that still sat delicately atop Seungwan’s injured knee. “Company…” she looked behind them, having a silent conversation with Yerim but when Seungwan turned around after Seulgi’s eyes went wide with intrigue, Yerim simply waved. 

“Thank you for being so hospitable, Sooyoung. I might just let you go home early.” Joohyun breezed past the group to check the register. 

“We’re closed?” 

Joohyun ignored Sooyoung’s comment. “And thank _you,_ Yerim for keeping everything together while Sooyoung played host.” Yerim grinned like she was being given a Purple Heart in managing an independent bakery. 

Seungwan hadn’t noticed just how much the time passed nor the customers filtering out and the laminated sign that hung on the door being switched to closed. The radical shift from having steam blowing out her ears on the edge of ultimate despair to having the most gorgeous girl that’s ever taken interest in her act as a place of comfort and consolation had the neurons in her head rattling like loose change. 

It was just one of those days. 

She felt like she talked about herself for hours, learning absolutely nothing except the minute details in the sound of her own voice. But in reality, she had. She learned that Sooyoung is the eldest child, that she doesn’t much care for reckless behavior, she finds the short-tempered funny and entertaining. And she practically ate the entirety of their shared slice of coffee cake. On her way home with Seulgi, her best friend’s head dozing off against her shoulder, Sooyoung’s comments about what it meant to be known echoed in her mind against the smooth sound of the tires on the asphalt.

It was frightening just how much those words made sense. Like Sooyoung had given her a small piece of a secret, unvoiced language. It made her throat dry and breathed life into her curiosity, pulsating once, twice, then it was put to rest the further away the bus moved along. 

**Author's Note:**

> now. i can't say when part 2 will come but...it will come. thank u for shopping, please come again.


End file.
